Dark Oneshots
by they're only words
Summary: This is a challenge by darkfairy72 to write a bunch of dark oneshots. Rated T right now, migh go up depending on how I feel at the time, and how the rest of the oneshots come out.
1. Morning Sickness

A/N-Alright, another challenge! I know, not smart with me being so busy that I can't update my other stories or finish the other challenge, but eh, I'm not a thinker. Whatever.

Disclaimer-I don't own Life with Derek, nor was any copyright infringement intended.**

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Morning Sickness 

"Ugh," she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and flushing the toilet. She leaned back on her heels, and sighed. _Every damn morning_, she thought. _Don't I get a break?_

"Good morning, princess," Derek said as he sauntered into the bathroom.

"The door was closed for a reason," Casey replied. "Get out. I was here first."

He shrugged his shoulders and picked up his toothbrush. "Not my problem. You didn't mind sharing space last night," he said suggestively, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Yeah, and it's thanks to my lack of standards that I'm in here puking," she replied angrily, standing up.

He shrugged again and didn't comment. "You're so infuriating!" she yelled, storming out of the bathroom.

She stood in front of her closet, pulling out clothes then throwing them on her bed. Everything she pulled out made her think of encounters with Derek. _Not that skirt, I wore that the day at the park. Not that shirt, that was the first time in his car. And those pants were the second time._ Before long, all she was left with was a plain white t-shirt and a denim skirt that she hadn't worn in a year, maybe longer. _Well, if that's all I have, I guess it'll have to do._ She walked downstairs to join the rest of her family at the table.

"Are you feeling okay, Casey?" Nora asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Because Liz said that she heard you throwing up this morning."

She shot a look at Derek, who kept his eyes on his cereal. "Just nerves. We have a math test today and I don't feel prepared at all."

"I'm sure you'll do fine, you always do," Nora replied.

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"Okay, so what's really going on?" Lizzie asked after school, in the few precious hours before George and Nora arrived home.

"What do you mean?" Casey answered nervously.

"Today wasn't the first time I've heard you throwing up in the morning, it was just the first time I said something to mom. Are you okay? You're not pregnant are you?"

Casey forced a laugh out. "Of course not. I don't even have a boyfriend, remember? Max and I broke up."

"You don't need a boyfriend to get pregnant," Lizzie said, eyeing her sister suspiciously.

"Maybe some girls don't, but I'm not like that. Now will you please leave, I have homework to do."

"Sure." Lizzie got up and walked out, looking at Casey over her shoulder the whole way out.

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"So how'd your test go?" Nora asked at dinner.

"What test?" Casey asked, confused.

"The math test you were worried about this morning," Nora clarified, giving her daughter an odd look.

"Oh right. It was alright. I'm sure I did fine," Casey quickly covered.

"What about you Derek?"

He shrugged. "Probably good enough to pass. As long as it keeps me on the team."

"You know, Derek, you should be putting more effort into your schoolwork. College is right around the corner," George admonished.

"Maybe I don't want to go to college," he said, tracing his fork through his mashed potatoes, drawing little designs.

"Why not?"

"Why should I? I'm not exactly the academic type. That's Casey's gig," he said, looking up at her with a smirk. He reached a foot over to rub circles on the top of hers. She kicked it away and glared at him.

"So then what do you plan to do with the rest of your life?"

"I wanna rock!" he said, jokingly.

George glared at him. "Be serious, Derek, for once in your life!"

"Maybe I'll move to New York. I'm sure there's plenty of shit down there for me to do."

"Why New York?"

"Why not New York?"

"Why do you keep avoiding the questions?"

"Why do you keep asking them?"

George sighed. "You'll be 18 in a couple of months, there's nothing I can do about it, I know. But do you have to move out of the country, just to piss me off?"

"Why do you think I'm doing it to piss you off? Maybe I just want to go there, regardless of your feelings?" He reached his foot over to Casey's again. This time she let it stay, glancing up briefly with a look of "Oh, hell, there's no stopping him."

"Because everything you do is to piss someone off, or at least to annoy them in some small way."

"That's not true."

"Name one thing you did that didn't piss someone off."

Derek thought for a second; his foot stopped moving on Casey's. "Going out with Sally!" he said, the light bulb clicking on above his head. Casey kicked him. _Oh, right, she got pretty __pissy__ about that, didn't she?_

"Casey was annoyed by that towards the end of your relationship. God knows why, because she won't tell anyone, but still."

"Can I be excused?" Casey said, not enjoying being the topic of this particular conversation.

"Sure," Nora said, surprised at Casey's sudden request.

She got out of her seat quickly and fled upstairs. Before too long she heard a knock at her door. "Go away," she said, knowing that he wouldn't.

"Did you really think that would work?" Derek asked as he walked in, closing the door behind him and then stretching out across her bed. "I never go away."

"Unfortunately, I know," she replied. She hated the fact that he made himself so comfortable on her bed. The sight made the bile rise up in the back of her throat again. "Would you please leave? I'm really not in the mood to deal with you tonight."

"Sure, that's what you say now, but what'll happen later on, when everyone else is asleep? Probably the same exact thing that has happened every night for the last six months, right? You'll come knocking on my door," he got up and stepped over to where she sat at her desk, "you'll crawl into my bed," he leaned down to whisper in her ear, "and then you'll let me fuck you, simply because you can't think of anything better to do." He stayed where he was, breathing softly into her ear.

She shoved him away. "Not tonight, not ever again. I'm done, Derek. You always make me feel so worthless after. I don't know what I saw in you that first time. I thought that you might actually have changed, that maybe you were going to be nice, but then you just kicked me out of your bed, like I was one of the many airheads that you were used to. I can't take it Derek. I won't be treated like that."

"Sure you won't," he said with a smirk as he walked out her door.

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Casey lay in bed, tossing and turning. She couldn't get to sleep, no matter how hard she tried. She glanced over at the clock. 1:15 a.m. She was acutely aware of Derek lying on the opposite side of the wall, waiting for her. She always slept better afterwards. It was like it was some sort of sick sleeping pill, just as addictive and yet just as effective as anything sold in a pharmacy. She sat up in bed, weighing the pros and cons. _If I don't get any sleep, I won't be any good in school tomorrow. If I go over to his room, I'll feel like shit, and I'll probably be sick again in the morning._ She contemplated, then decided on the lesser of two evils. She climbed out of bed and walked out of her room and tapped gently on Derek's door. She heard him snicker, then opened it.

"Told you so," he said triumphantly.

"Shut up," she said wearily. She crawled into his bed and let him touch her, let him kiss her. She responded with the bare minimum of movements, not wanting to let him know how much she was actually enjoying it.

Derek came, then lay down next to her, stroking her hair. She knew the sweet side would disappear in a couple of minutes and enjoyed it while she could. She closed her eyes and leaned in to him. She was almost asleep when he elbowed her. "Okay, you can leave now."

She sighed sadly and gathered her clothes, taking as long as possible to put them on, trying to hold on to the small moment before he turned into a dick again. "Why do you do this?" she asked.

He opened his eyes and regarded her. "Why not? Can you think of a better way for us to get out our frustrations?"

"No, I understand why you like the sex part, I mean why are you such a jerk to me after?"

"Because that's who I am Case. Did you expect that one night with you would magically transform me into someone that cared, someone that was capable of loving you? You heard my dad at dinner, I don't do anything unless it'll piss someone off. And I can see exactly how much this pisses you off. It tears you up inside to realize that you need me, and that I don't need you. You keep coming back here, night after night, hoping that maybe, just maybe, this time will be different. And I keep leading you on, letting you believe that, because every morning, when you're kneeling over that toilet, I get to see how much you hate yourself. How much you hate what you have become."

Casey just shook her head at him and left the room.

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The next morning she was kneeling over the toilet, throwing up again. _Why do I let him do this to me?_ she thought.

Derek walked into the bathroom. "Good morning. How are you feeling on this lovely day?"

She flushed the toilet. "Don't make me kill you."

He just laughed at her.

"What would you do if this was real morning sickness? What if it's not just you that nauseates me, but your child in there?" she asked, coming to stand next to him at the sink. She saw him pale. _Good, now maybe he'll think twice before next time._

He recovered. "Like you'd let Mommy know how badly you've been misbehaving. You'd probably get rid of it before she had the chance to find out. And if I, by some odd chance, actually wanted it, you'd get rid of it just to spite me."

She slapped him. "I'm so sick of this game that we're playing."

"So stop playing," he said seriously, looking at her straight on.

"I-I-" she stopped, not sure how to respond. Sure, that sounds easy, but could she do it? She didn't want to be his toy anymore, she didn't want to be repulsed by herself, but actually leave him alone? She wasn't sure she could handle it.

"Well?" he asked, knowing full well she wouldn't.

She spun around. Derek thought she was leaving, so he picked up his toothbrush. He was spun around before he had the chance to use it, Casey's lips pressed against his. He realized she had just shut and locked the door, advancing their game further.

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Casey came down to the kitchen for breakfast. She saw Derek sitting there with his eggs, looking like the cat that ate the canary. She rushed over to the garbage can and threw up, knowing she wouldn't make it to the bathroom.

"Okay, you're staying home today," Nora said, smoothing back her hair. "I wonder what you have? It's probably just the flu, right?"

"Probably. I must've caught something."

"Hopefully you'll be able to get rid of it soon," Derek said, smirking.

"I hope so, but maybe not," she replied, looking at him miserably.

He just laughed.

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A/N-Okay, so I'm not entirely sure I like how this came out. It wasn't as dark as I would've liked. I'm just too lazy to try to rewrite it. So, I guess this is what you get. Maybe if I get enough motivation, I'll try again and rewrite it. Until then, this is what you get for this prompt. Tell me what you think! 


	2. Pills

Disclaimer-I don't own Life with Derek, nor was any copyright infringement intended.

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**Pills**

I didn't know what Lizzie was on, but I knew it was bad. I didn't know why either, but I had a pretty good idea. I heard her sneaking in to Derek's room a couple of nights in a row.

She would come to my room after sometimes, telling me how sorry she was, and that she was a bad person, but wouldn't tell me what she had done that was so bad.

Until yesterday. She came into my room right after school, crying her eyes out. She handed me a baggie full of little white pills. "What are these?" I asked her.

"Valium," she replied, staring at the floor. "I'm trying to stop, I really am, but it hurts so much."

"Why did you even start?" I asked, putting my arms around her and letting her cry.

She slowly told me everything, in between sobs and hiccups. She had started to get a small crush on Derek when we had first moved in, but had tried to bury it, telling herself that he was her stepbrother, and older than her, and if he was going to be interested in anyone, it would have been me. After a while, it was just a dull ache, and she ignored it, until he taught her how to play hockey. Then it had come back in full force. She had told him about a month later, and he had kissed her. I was ready to kill him at that point, because she was just a little girl and Derek should know better, but she stopped me, telling me that it was pointless, she was just as at fault as he was. That was why she had started taking the Valium. Some kid at school had given them to her once, and she realized she didn't hate what she had become as much. She talked the kid who gave them to her into telling her where he got them from, and had started going to get them herself. That was what she spend her allowance on every week. I couldn't believe it, my 14 year old sister, already an addict. It explained so much about her lately though. She was always so out of it.

"Are you going to tell mom?" I asked.

She looked up at me horrified. "No! Please don't tell her! I don't think I could handle it. She'd be so disappointed in me."

"Yeah, but you need help Liz."

"That's why I came to you, Casey. You're my sister; you'll help me, right?"

I sighed. "I can try, but I honestly think that you need more help than I can give you."

"Can we please just try this? If I'm not over it in a month, then you can tell mom."

"Promise?"

"Yeah, I promise."

That night I heard Derek's door open and close quietly. I was tempted to get out of bed and go stop it, but she had told me that she would handle it. Five minutes later I heard his door open again, and Lizzie came into my room. I lifted up my covers and let her climb into bed with me.

"How'd it go?" I asked.

"Horribly. He hates me."

"He should hate himself. He's almost 18, he should know better."

She nodded, but didn't say anything. I thought she was asleep until she spoke again. "Casey, can I please have one? I just need one to sleep. I promise I'll quit tomorrow."

I sighed. "You say that now, but then tomorrow it'll be, 'just one more, tomorrow is better,' and it'll continue on and on."

"No, I promise it won't. I just need to sleep. I'm getting better. I ended things with Derek, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did," I agreed. I pulled the bag out of my night table drawer and gave her one. She swallowed it without any water. "Goodnight, Liz."

"Night Casey," she replied.

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I glanced over at the clock. _3:15, where'd she go?_ I thought. _She's probably in the bathroom, just calm down._ I waited ten minutes and when she wasn't back yet, I decided to go check on her. She wasn't in the bathroom, so I put my ear against Derek's door. I heard muffled whispers; it sounded like her voice. I shook my head and went back to bed. _If she won't help herself, I can't help her._

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"Just what do you think you're doing?" I asked Derek the next morning when we were in the bathroom. "She's 14!"

"I'm well aware of her age, thanks though."

"You should know better."

"She keeps coming back to me."

"You could say no."

"When have I ever said no?"

I hit him. "You're such an ass. How can you live with yourself?"

He shrugged. "It's not too hard." He walked out of the bathroom, passing Lizzie on the way. He raised an eyebrow at her and she blushed.

"You know, it's hard to take your request for help seriously when you don't even try to help yourself," I told her.

She looked at her feet. "Then don't help me. Maybe I don't deserve help."

"I'm telling mom."

"Please don't! Look, you guys are almost out of the house, it'll stop then."

"Will it? What if Derek doesn't leave? What if you get pregnant?"

"We're being safe. Just, please, stay out of it. I'm sorry that I ever involved you."

"Don't you want to stop? Isn't that what you told me?"

"Yeah, I want to stop, but it hurts too badly."

I shook my head at her. "Maybe you two deserve each other. You both know how wrong it is and you won't stop."

"Yeah, well, welcome to hell, right? Sinning and knowing it's a sin and doing it anyways, that's hell, right?"

"There's no way you're my sister. My sister wouldn't have done this to herself. You're just pretending to be her."

She shrugged and didn't meet my eyes.

"I'm washing my hands of this whole business. When you're serious about wanting help, come see me. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

She shrugged again. "When I'm thirsty, I'll come find you. Thanks anyway."

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I could hear her sneaking into his room almost every night now. She got more and more out of it, and I knew she was taking more and more Valium. Before too long, mom even noticed it. Lizzie, of course, denied anything was wrong.

I left for college, Derek stayed put. Lizzie showed up at my dorm one day. I didn't even ask how she had gotten there, just let her inside. Apparently, she had almost OD'ed and was finally ready for help. It probably had something to do with the fact that Derek had finally moved out. Whatever it takes though. As long as he didn't come near her again. I'm worried about holidays. Maybe I'll make her stay in my room.

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A/N-This was inspired by the Jewel song "Little Sister." I was going to do a songfic, but decided against it. Not too sure how much I like this one, but I always think that about my fics. So, how about you tell me if it's okay. 


	3. The Body

A/N-Another one! This one was inspired mostly by the book _Paint It Black_ by Janet Fitch. It's a wonderful book if you haven't read it. It's also very depressing, but it's still just so beautifully written. Anyways, this one's probably the longest oneshot I've ever written. It really just got away from me and decided to pretty much write itself. Both thoughts and flashbacks are in italics, if it's too confusing to read it that way, let me know and I'll change it.

Disclaimer-I don't own Life with Derek, nor was any copyright infringement intended.

**The Body**

_It's just a body,_ she told herself. _Just a bunch of carbon cells compressed together to make an interesting shape in space. What happens to it really isn't important._ No matter how many times she told herself this, it didn't really make a difference. All the men leering at her as she took her clothes off chilled her to the bone every time.

_It's just for the money,_ she lied. _As soon as I have enough to pay off all those student loans, I'll quit._ She knew she would never quit. Once upon a time, she might have. Now, it didn't matter. He was gone, so who else could possibly care what she did with her body?

Her parents sure as hell didn't care. They were too busy with Dimi, the perfect child. He was starting college already, at 15. The kid was brilliant. She wasn't angry with him; he deserved everything that he got, because he had worked so hard for it. She was angry with her parents for basically forgetting about her once they realized how much potential he had.

Her friends, well, for as much as they talked to her, they were gone too. It was probably her fault too. They tried so hard to keep in touch with her after he killed himself, but being around them just reminded her of him too much. She couldn't take it, and she quit returning their calls.

"Hey baby, it's my birthday, how 'bout a dance?" a bald man in the corner called to her. She forced a smile on her face and sauntered over to him and led him back to the fantasy room. _Yeah right, fantasy room. None of my fantasies have __**ever**__ had anything to do with this room._

One good thing about her line of work, she never had to think about it anymore. She could run on autopilot most of the time. She could do her job and make great tips without ever really being present. This could sometimes be more of a burden than a blessing, especially when her thoughts wandered back to that last argument with him.

"_Trevor, talk to me please?"_

_He didn't put down his book. "About what?" his voice came from behind the pages._

"_About anything! What's going on with you? You never write anymore, you never even look at me! Half the time it seems like you're not even here!"_

_He lowered the book to his lap and regarded her carefully. He opened his mouth to speak when the doorbell rang. He closed his mouth and lifted an eyebrow. "Don't you want to get that?" he asked when she didn't move._

"_I'd rather talk to you."_

"_I'd rather you didn't keep our guest waiting."_

"_Why do you care? It's probably just one of my friends, and you hate all of my friends." He continued to look at her. She sighed. "Fine, whatever. You win." She strode angrily over to the door and pulled it open. "What?" she barked._

"_Sorry Em, is this a bad time?" Casey asked, looking sheepish._

"_Oh, no, Casey, it's fine. I didn't realize it was you. You usually call first," Emily replied, stepping out of the way to let Casey in the house._

"_I know, but I got in a huge fight with Derek and left my cell phone back at the apartment."_

_Emily rolled her eyes. "What else is new? You guys are always fighting."_

_Casey glared at her. "We are not! Oh, hi Trevor," she said when she came into the living room and saw him sitting there._

_He nodded his head slightly, and then got up and went back to his and Emily's bedroom._

"_Did I interrupt something? He seems really angry," Casey said nervously, looking at the door to the bedroom, which Trevor had slammed behind him._

_Emily sighed and sat down on the couch, pulling a cigarette out of the pouch she kept on the coffee table. "You didn't interrupt anything new. He's been like this for the last three or four months. I can't figure out what's wrong. He won't talk to me." She lit the cigarette, then offered one to Casey, who made a face and shook her head. Emily shrugged and continued talking. "He quit his job six weeks ago. I've had to pick up double shifts at the restaurant to keep us above water."_

"_Why did he quit?"_

"_He won't say. Just that he was sick of it and sick of all of the rest of the bullshit that he had to put up with."_

"_What does that mean?"_

_Emily shrugged. Trevor opened the door and stuck his head out. "It means exactly what I said. I'm sick of the bullshit that is everywhere around us." Emily and Casey looked at him for a moment. He shrugged. "The walls are thin. If you want to talk about someone, you should check to make sure that they can't hear you." He shut the door._

"_Maybe I should go. Derek's probably cooled down by now," Casey said, rising from the couch._

"_Okay. Sorry about all this. It's just a bad time."_

_Casey made a sympathetic face and hugged Emily. "I'll talk to you later, okay?"_

"_Sure," she said._

_Casey nodded and headed for the door as quickly as she could. As soon as she was gone, Trevor came back out of the bedroom._

"_What the hell was that all about?" Emily yelled._

"_What?" Trevor asked in reply, sitting back down in the chair, his face giving away nothing about whatever was going on in his head._

"_Why did you scare Casey away like that?"_

"_Please. Casey scared herself off. I tried to clarify what I heard you telling her about me, she freaked out because it doesn't fit into her perfect little world, and she left."_

_Emily kneeled in front of him and grabbed his hands. "Trevor, please, just tell me what's wrong. I want to help."_

_He pulled his hands away from her and sneered. "Right, 'cause you've done such a good job of helping me in the past."_

"_What are you talking about?" she asked, jumping to her feet. "I've done everything to help you. You said that you couldn't write living with your parents, I found this place for you to live. You said it was too quiet and lonely, I moved in with you. You said that you couldn't handle all the bullshit that came with working a job, so I work twice as much to get all the bills paid on time. I'm paying off your student loans too!"_

_Trevor stood and glared down at her. "That's what you think happened? I said that my parents were driving me crazy, so you brow-beat me until I agree to move into this shack. I say that it's nice not to have someone breathing down my neck all the time, but I wish I could afford to have someone come clean up the place and cook, so you take that as a sign to move in here. I was working for _Punk Report_ but that wasn't making enough money, so you sent my resume to that copyrighting shop that was offering a larger salary, which I then quit because I hated it. I didn't ask you to do anything, but you went right ahead and did it anyway, because you just can't stop yourself from meddling, can you?"_

"_Well sorry for trying to make your life better!"_

"_What's better about this? We live in a shack, held together only by the paint! After having to read all the shit that came through the shop, I can't write anything even remotely individual! I'm wasting away my life already, and I'm only 24!"_

"_That's not what happened and you know it! Why do you always do this, change your history to suit however you're feeling at the moment!"_

"_You're crazy! I do nothing of the sort!"_

"_That's such a lie! If it suited you, you'd tell me that you had almost been recruited by the New York Yankees when you were twelve!"_

"_Now who's making up lies?"_

"_Fine! If I'm such a shrew that's ruining your life, then why don't you just leave!"_

"_Fine!" He went into their room and began throwing a few necessities into a bag, while Emily flopped down on the couch and lit another cigarette. "Have a wonderful life!" he spat as he walked out the front door._

Emily had thought that he would come back in a couple of days. They loved each other, didn't they? She thought they did. He had just been so moody those last couple of months. It wasn't always like that. He was so sweet and caring in the beginning.

_Emily curled herself against Trevor, attempting to get warm. "Why is it so cold?" she whined._

_He laughed. "Because it's January and we live in Canada. And our thermostat is broken. I called the landlord, he'll be out to fix it sometime next week."_

"_Next week!" Emily moaned. "I'll freeze to death before then!"_

_He laughed again. "I suppose it's my job to make sure you don't then, huh?" He wrapped his arms around her tighter. "I guess I'll just have to make sure you don't fall asleep."_

_She nodded. "Tell me the story again."_

"_Again? You've heard it a hundred times. You could probably tell it to me by now."_

"_But I like it so much more when you tell it to me!"_

"_Okay," he sighed. He reached over for their cigarettes and lit two, handing one to her and balancing the ashtray on his stomach. "Once upon a time, there were two young lovers. They were more in love than any couple before them or after them. They lived in a small house up on the hill. All the lovers' friends tried to tell them how dangerous the house was, but the lovers knew better. The house was their own paradise, with a view of the rest of the world below them. They didn't need anyone but each other. The lovers managed to save enough money to leave all their skeptical friends behind and go live in France. They bought a quiet house in the countryside. They strolled along the river every morning. The girl had to do the shopping, because the boy was very silly and loved her so much that he would spend their money on flowers for her instead of food. She would bring the food home and sit at the kitchen table talking to him as he prepared their dinner. This, truly, was their own piece of heaven."_

_Emily sighed. "Will we really go to France one day?"_

"_Of course. That's why we're working so hard now."_

_She leaned over and kissed him. "I love you so much."_

"_I love you too. I love you with the fire of a thousand burning suns." He kissed her, sliding his hand behind her head._

They never did make it to France. Not even a week after their argument, the coroner's office had called her in to identify a body. Apparently she was still listed as his emergency contact. She couldn't believe it was him. Both of his eyes were blackened and his cheeks were sunken in. "I'm sorry," the coroner had said. "The embalmers haven't cleaned him up yet, we needed to get him identified first."

Emily gripped the sides of the gurney tightly, taking slow, shallow breaths. It looked like him, but like a funhouse mirror version of him. Only it wasn't fun.

He had taken a pistol and shot himself. No matter how many times she said it, it didn't seem real. He wouldn't do that, would he? Surely not her Trevor, who could tell her of cottages in the French countryside, of babbling brooks that they would have picnics next to? Not the same Trevor who had told her she was beautiful, that he wanted to spend every minute of the rest of his life with her? It had to be a different Trevor than the one who would come home from work with a hand-picked bouquet of daisies and waltz her around their small living room, didn't it?

It wasn't a different Trevor, and his family held the funeral the next week. She tried talking to his family, but it was too hard. He had kept so much about them from her. She knew that they were one of the more well-off families in their town, but she hadn't known how well off. She had never been invited to his house. They were struggling so hard, and then here was his mother, saying that if they had just asked, everything could've been taken care of. Oh, you know Trevor, he was too proud to let us pay for college, but I'm sure you could've talked him into it. Oh, you wanted to go to France? We have an apartment in Paris, Trevor should've taken you.

She didn't know what hurt her more, the fact that he had kept all of this from her, or the fact that he had kept her from his parents. He had told her that they were angry with him for moving out and refused to come to the house on the hill. They told her that he always invited her over when she was at work. After the funeral, they tried to contact her many times, but she never answered. She stayed in the little house on the hill, because it was the only reminder she had of their time together. In that house, she could pretend that she was still loved, and that he would be walking through the door at anytime.

That had all been about a year ago. Things had steadily gone downhill from then on. She quit the restaurant, because the manager had gotten angry at her for working so much overtime. That was when she started working The Blue Room. It was degrading, but it paid much better. Besides, it was just a body. Nobody loved it, so it didn't really matter if she let other men look at it.

After she was done with the bald man, she headed out the back door for her break. It was just long enough for a cigarette-not nearly as long as she would've liked, but she was willing to take what she could get. Just as she was putting it out, Nikki stuck her head out the door to talk to her. "We got a bachelor party that just came in. They look like they're pretty well off, probably big tippers. You wanna come in and help me with them?"

Emily shrugged. "Whatever." She followed Nikki inside to the big room that was set aside for parties. Without looking at the men that were gathered in the room, she climbed up on the mini-stage.

As she was about to begin dancing, one of them said, incredulously, "_Emily!_"

She looked up and horror washed over her. Gathered in the room were Derek, Sam, Ralph, Edwin, and some other guys that she didn't know. "Uh, Nikki, you'd better find someone else. I can't do this." She ran out of the room as quickly as she could on her clear heels as Nikki stared after her.

After a moment, Derek whistled. "That was definitely not what I was expecting." Sam got up and ran after her.

He finally tracked her down, back outside next to the dumpster, crying and trying to light another cigarette. She saw Sam and tried to walk away, but he grabbed her shoulders. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I could ask you the same," she said, looking at her feet and trying to change the subject.

"Derek's bachelor party. Ralph decided that it was a 'rite of passage' or something, so here we are."

"Does Casey know?"

He stared at her. "Are you kidding? If Casey found out, she'd kick all of our asses right into the next century. Derek didn't want to do this because of how afraid of Casey he is."

Emily let out a small laugh. "Yeah, that sounds about right." She finally looked up. "If Casey ever does find out about you being here, please don't tell her you saw me here."

"Okay, if you'll tell me why you're here at all."

She brushed Sam's hands off her shoulders and lit her cigarette. "It pays a lot of money. I'm pretty far in debt. When I was with…" she trailed off. "Let's just say that I was living a little bit outside of my means for a while there. Mostly because I didn't have any means, and what little I did was going to the loan companies."

Sam nodded slowly. "So, this was what you chose to get you out of debt?"

She shrugged. "It pays the bills. Whatever. So, how have you guys been?"

"Okay, I guess. Just, you know, working our way slowly up to middle management and a home in suburbia. It's not too bad, just a whole lot more repetitious than anyone ever told us it would be."

She nodded. "So, uh, how's Casey? I haven't heard from her in so long."

"She's good. She misses you. She sent you an invitation to the wedding, but I'm guessing that you didn't get it?" Emily shook her head. "Well, why don't you come and surprise her? It's the day after tomorrow. I still don't have a date, so you can come with me."

"Why don't you have a date? What happened to Elsie?"

"Wow, you have been gone for a while, haven't you?" She shrugged and waited for him to continue. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I, uh, came out of the closet two months ago."

"Oh, I wasn't expecting that one," Emily said, sounding a little shell-shocked.

"Yeah, neither was Elsie," Sam joked. "So, what do you say? It'll save me the embarrassment of Casey trying to set me up with every gay man she meets that day. Which, seeing as how she's having all sorts of professionals fix her up, will be quite a few men. If she sees you, she'll be too distracted to focus on me."

Emily thought about it for a minute. Her heart began to pound in her chest with excitement at the thought of seeing Casey again. Her body wanted her to go. Her mind was screaming for her to stay at home. She thought it was high time she started listening to her body again. After all, it was hers. It was the only one she was getting; she might as well start treating it better than she had been lately. She smiled. "Okay, I'll be there."


End file.
